Simon Corns, headmaster of Queen Elizabeth Grammar School in Lancashire talks to Lancashire Life about his approach to educating young people...
Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School
Simon Corns, headmaster of Queen Elizabeth Grammar School in Lancashire talks to Lancashire Life about his approach to educating young people...
Name of school and location: Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Blackburn
Name of head: Simon Corns
What are the vital ingredients for a great education? A sense of wonder and achievement.
What makes your school so special? The friendliness of the people: the boys and girls, teachers and support staff, parents and formerparents of the school - all are enormously supportive to our common goal of enabling the boys and girls here to fulfil their potential.
What made you want to teach?A real love for my subject and the desire to inspire others to share the delight of learning.
Brief career and personal history:Educated at Merchant Taylors' School, Crosby and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge where I read Modern and Medieval Languages(French and German). I have taught at four highly successful HMC schools and was Headof Languages and then Deputy Head at St Albans School in Hertfordshire, before coming to Queen Elizabeth's as Head four years ago.
Describe your approach to educating young people? Involving them and encouraging them to develop their ideas, while at the same timeinsisting on rigour and clarity of thought and expression so they are well prepared for the world of work.
What's the most satisfying aspect of the job? Seeing young people achieve - especially beyond expectations - and hearing of their successes once they have left school.
Who inspired you and why? Dickens - his breadth of vision, humour, delight in language and sheer humanity.
Your best and worst subjects when you were at school? Best: Modern Languages.
